Sept. 23, 2008

Montreal - "The CMA is absolutely right to call on the federal political parties to outline to voters how they would come to grips with Canada's acute shortage of doctors, nurses and other key health professionals," says Dr. Peter O'Brien, president of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association. "And it's not just family doctors we need. Specialists of every type, including orthopaedic surgeons, are in very short supply."

The Canadian Orthopaedic Association (COA) is sounding the alarm because Canada is experiencing a severe shortage of orthopaedic surgeons at the very time when demand for arthroplasty, hip-fracture repair and other procedures are increasing significantly. Currently, there are approximately 1000 practising surgeons in Canada, a patient-to-surgeon ratio that is much lower than most other G7 nations, such as the US or United Kingdom. The COA has calculated that if another 400 orthopaedic surgeons were added immediately to the roster, it might meet present day need, but would still be inadequate for the projected doubling of demand by 2015.

To make matters worse, for much of the last decade, nearly half of Canada's newly trained orthopaedic surgeons (about 50 each year) have had to find work outside the country - largely because many hospitals are reluctant to invest in a specialty that has significant material costs (implants, equipment, OR time). Of course, this attitude is at odds with the community, since people clearly place a very high value on pain relief and mobility.

In an election so tightly focused on party leaders, the Canadian Orthopaedic Association echoes the CMA and wonders, where is the leadership that is so important in harmonizing health policy across 10 provinces and three territories?

"Canadians deserve to know what the next government intends to do about a health-care system that already has too few health professionals to look after the needs of a growing and aging population," says Dr. O'Brien. "Are the hard-fought gains that have been made in patient wait times for joint-replacement surgery to be lost because Canada has no national strategy to train and retain more orthopaedic surgeons?"

The surgeons who make up the Canadian Orthopaedic Association are dedicated to promoting and delivering excellence in orthopaedic care to the many Canadians coping with severe arthritis or other musculoskeletal disorders.

For more information, contact the Association's CEO Doug Thomson at (514) 874-9003.